JAILED LEADER OF RIO´S MAIN MILITIA

Historic

Zinho took over the leadership of the militia in Campo Grande, Santa Cruz and Paciência, West Zone, in 2021, two months after the death of the former leader, his brother, Wellington da Silva Braga, known as Ecko. Before becoming the leader of the militia, Zinho was linked to the group’s money laundering activities, mainly in Baixada Fluminense.

He had already been arrested by the police on two occasions. However, he was released on both occasions. The first time, in 2015, he benefited from a court decision. On the second, in 2017, an investigation showed that he paid R$20,000 to the civil police officers responsible for his arrest and left the police station without being disturbed.

Connection Between Zinho and State Deputy Lucinha

An investigation by the PF and the Public Ministry detected that at least 15 meetings were held in person in 2021 between Lucinha, her advisor and members of the Zinho militia, including himself in some of them.

She is considered the political arm of Zinho’s militia and was called “godmother” by the militia members. The deputy would have worked to help Zinho’s militia on several occasions, one of them changing command of a police battalion.

Chaos in the West Zone

In October of this year, Zinho’s group carried out a series of attacks on buses across the West Zone of Rio, in retaliation for the death of the second most important name in Zinho’s group, his nephew, Matheus da Silva Rezende, known as Faustão. At the time, 35 buses and a train were burned by the group. The situation generated chaos in the capital of Rio de Janeiro.

Change

The arrest of militiaman Zinho could change the game of power in the war between paramilitary groups that has impacted security in Rio de Janeiro for more than two years.

With Zinho behind bars, the police are not ruling out the possibility that rivals will try to take advantage in an attempt to take control of the conflict areas in the West Zone of the capital and Baixada Fluminense. The police also believe that, before handing himself in, the militiaman had already designated a successor. Now, experts and police fear that the criminal scene in the region, as well as in Baixada, could intensify conflicts.

Analysis:

The arrest of the militia member known as the state’s number one enemy is a significant step forward, but the public security situation in Rio will hardly be resolved by the arrest of one criminal. Criminals’ leaders in prison have long developed means to communicate with their subordinates on the streets. On top of that, they are quickly replaced by their second-in-command. Many Brazilian law enforcement institutions already know that the fight against organized crime depends on structuring actions, such as investigations; and operations that generate lasting impact on a criminal group, like those that disarticulate money laundering schemes.

The joint actions established between the federal and state governments following the dispatch of the National Forces to Rio — in October this year —helped suffocate criminal organizations. Zinho spent years eluding authorities from a large crime structure. But the scenario changed when the police carried out a search operation at the home of state deputy Lucinha (PSD). She is considered the political arm of Zinho’s militia. This whole scenario led Zinho to surrender himself. This is because reaching the deputy means reaching the entire scheme. The narco-militia and politics are a power bloc, so when you reach one axis, you reach the other. Experts understand that there will be a change in the militia’s axis of power, which could lead to an intensification of conflicts in the West Zone of the city.

Source: Folha de SP [1], [2], [3].